Structural Correlates of Reading the Mind in the Eyes in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Behavioral studies have shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have impaired ability to read the mind in the eyes. Although this impairment is central to their social malfunctioning, its structural neural correlates remain unclear. To investigate this issue, we assessed Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, revised version (Eyes Test) and acquired structural magnetic resonance images in adults with high-functioning ASD (n = 19) and age-, sex- and intelligence quotient-matched typically developing (TD) controls (n = 19). On the behavioral level, the Eyes Test scores were lower in the ASD group than in the control group. On the neural level, an interaction between group and Eyes Test score was found in the left temporoparietal junction (TPJ). A positive association between the Eyes Test score and gray matter volume of this region was evident in the control group, but not in the ASD group. This finding suggests that the failure to develop appropriate structural neural representations in the TPJ may underlie the impaired ability of individuals with ASD to read the mind in the eyes. These behavioral and neural findings provide support for the theories that impairments in processing eyes and the ability to infer others’ mental states are the core symptoms of ASD, and that atypical features in the social brain network underlie such impairments.

Structural neuroimaging correlates of social deficits are similar in autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: analysis from the POND Network

“…Functional and structural neuroimaging work has associated RMET performance with activation/size of the inferior frontal gyrus, middle/posterior temporal regions, and the amygdala/hippocampus in typically developing adults 91–94 , although findings may defer in ASD 67,95 . Our results for the RMET highlight subcortical structures as being important across disorders; children with ASD also had associations in the lateral mentalization regions and in the insula.…”

“…Subcortical structures were segmented using multiple automatically generated templates (MAGeT) and their volumes determined from the segmentation results 66 . For the region of interest analysis, we examined the association between mean thickness/volume measurements and social deficits in both the left and right hemispheres combined, except where previous data suggested significant lateralization effects (i.e., the temporal–parietal region 24,29,67 , the amygdala 68,69 , the dorsal striatum 33 , and the insula 70 ].…”

The Two-Systems Account of Theory of Mind: Testing the Links to Social- Perceptual and Cognitive Abilities

“…To capture key aspects of ToM we operationally defined it as the ability to process complex and social emotional states from eyes, face, and voice, including meaning of spoken sentences and prosody cues. The reading the mind in the eyes test (henceforth, RME; Baron-Cohen et al, 2001 ) is one of the most frequently used tests of advanced ToM in clinical settings with groups with autism, Asperger’s syndrome, and schizophrenia (e.g., Baron-Cohen et al, 2001 ; Browne et al, 2016 ; Sato et al, 2017 ). The widespread use is not limited to populations with social deficits, but the test is also sensitive to cultural differences (e.g., Adams et al, 2010 ) and to individual differences of healthy individuals (e.g., Vellante et al, 2013 ; Preti et al, 2017 ).…”

REM Sleep EEG Activity and Clinical Correlates in Adults With Autism

“…This suggests atypicalities in thalamo-cortical and cortico-cortical functioning in ASD (10), which is supported by the recent findings of particularities in cortico-cortical and thalamo-cortical projections. Studies using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) investigated cortical thickness found gray matter reductions in all cortical regions of adults with ASD (43)(44)(45)(46). Moreover, also using structural MRI, Ecker et al (47) showed that cortico-cortical connectivity was locally and globally reduced in ASD.…”